Mount Maunganui RSA general manager Andrew Buenter hoped MTA would show leniency over more than $1000 worth of expired vouchers. Photo/John Borren
Mount Maunganui RSA general manager Andrew Buenter hoped MTA would show leniency over more than $1000 worth of expired vouchers. Photo/John Borren
More than $1000 worth of donations to Mount RSA have gone to waste after the Motor Trade Association refused to honour expired gift cards.
The RSA says it is a "kick in the teeth" for the not-for-profit organisation that gives MTA gift cards to volunteers who visit sick and dying RSA members in hospital and at Waipuna Hospice.
Mount Maunganui RSA general manager Andrew Buenter told the Bay of Plenty Times the cards, worth $1140, were forgotten about after they were left in a safe in August 2013 by an outgoing staff member.
By the time they were found last month, they were eight months past their expiry date. The cards were paid for using donations - including money from the Poppy Day appeal.
It's a tremendous amount ... To have well over $1000 disappear like that is a bit of a kick in the teeth and very hard for us to digest.
Mr Buenter wrote to the MTA on Thursday last week, seeking leniency.
But MTA member products manager Danny Garrick refused the request, responding in an email on Tuesday that the organisation "will not be taking any further action in relation to the cards you have on hand".
"MTA does allow a period of grace from the legitimate expiry date, however, in the case of your organisation that period has well and truly passed," he said.
"No doubt you can appreciate that it is necessary to have a cut-off period and that needs to be applied across all our customers."
Mr Buenter said he was "very disappointed" given there was so much publicly donated money on the line. "We understand that they're expired vouchers but we don't understand why it's so black and white, especially with such a big amount of money.
"It's a tremendous amount ... To have well over $1000 disappear like that is a bit of a kick in the teeth and very hard for us to digest," he said.
"To have over $1000 worth of gift cards lose their value is of great concern and one an organisation such as this cannot sustain," he said.
He said losing that much money would affect the volunteers and returned soldiers, as well as the people who donated the money in good faith.
"We will always endeavour to maintain these services but we'd like to see big corporates supporting us, not hindering us."
The RSA had been a good customer to the MTA, spending about $1500 on vouchers every year for about 10 years, he said.
Providing support to RSA members in hospitals and hospices was a critical and essential part of what the RSA did and it would be sad to see it stop, he said.
Mount Maunganui RSA general manager Andrew Buenter hoped MTA would show leniency over more than $1000 worth of expired vouchers. Photo/John Borren
"We've, in effect, lost out.
"And it's not just us, it's the volunteers who have the difficult task of visiting people in hospital who they don't even know and supporting them.
"It's everyone who supports the RSA and all the people in the hospitals who need this support."
The RSA was simply hoping to secure a short extension on the vouchers so they could be used.
"It's a moral question we're wanting to ask ...
"We would like to see a bit of leniency."
Consumer New Zealand chief executive Sue Chetwin said the MTA was within its rights to not honour the vouchers but she was surprised they had not.
"I would have thought an organisation like MTA would honour them ... given it's a not-for-profit and given they are used for volunteers to visit returned servicemen in hospital." She said it would be a "real shame" for the public's money, which was donated to help RSA men and women, go to waste.
The MTA was contacted by the Bay of Plenty Times for comment twice yesterday but it did not respond before deadline.
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